Keith’s Note: on this date 1 April 1996, NASA (RIF) Watch was born with this posting. No kidding. “Editor’s note: From a well-placed source at NASA HQ who participated in this meeting: Mal Peterson (NASA HQ Comptroller’s Office) personally briefed NASA program managers (Centers and HQ) yesterday (27 March) and gave instructions for planning and implementing a RIF by Summer 1997, the reduction to be completed by October 1998, to a total complement level of 17,500, as called for by the President for the year 2000, to be completed by 1998. … Vugraphs were shown concerning “the value of fear in managing corporate-downsizing.” (That is a direct quote) They have statistics on the number of personnel supposed to be within retirement range and everyone will be encouraged to retire asap, though these numbers will not prevent a RIF.”

Keith’s note: NASA Watch officially turns 20 on Friday, 1 April. It started in 1996 as “NASA RIF Watch”. The “RIF” was dropped when the threat of a RIF (Reduction in Force) under NASA Administrator Dan Goldin subsided. This is the news item I posted on the sci.space.policy USENET group on 28 March 1996 that pushed me to create a website (NASA RIF Watch) a few days later: NASA is […]

Keith’s note: NASAWatch turns 18 on 1 Apr 2014. It started as “NASA RIFWatch” on 1 Apr 1996 and was first hosted on a Mac Classic II on an ISDN line. Here a few things from those early days that are still online: – Rogue Webmasters, Government Executive, 1 Oct 1996 “A committee of headquarters employees nominated Cowing for an agency award for running the RIF Watch site. But NASA […]

Keith’s note: A note for all of the “citizen journalists” , NASA Social participants, etc. Today is the 17th anniversary of the debut of NASA Watch (then known as NASA RIF Watch) online. There is a long road – one traveled by others before you to where you will be – and it started more than 10 years ago, before “blogging” was even a word, when there were no Tweetups, […]

Keith’s note: Power will eventually go out here in the metro DC area as hurricane Sandy strikes. When I go offline Marc Boucher will keep NASA Watch up to date from Toronto, Canada until such time as I get power back. Of course Toronto is going to get hammered too at some point so we may not update for a while. Who knows. Stay safe. Keith’s note: Amazingly we did […]

Margaret Warner’s Full Interview With Keith Cowing of NASA Watch regarding LCROSS